"A recent study by French scientist Thierry Castex has revealed that on the shroud are traces of words in Aramaic spelled with Hebrew letters.

"A Vatican researcher, Barbara Frale, told Vatican Radio July 26 that her own studies suggest the letters on the shroud were written more than 1,800 years ago.

"She said that in 1978 a Latin professor in Milan noticed Aramaic writing on the shroud and in 1989 scholars discovered Hebrew characters that probably were portions of the phrase 'The king of the Jews.'

"Castex's recent discovery of the word 'found' with another word next to it, which still has to be deciphered, 'together may mean "because found" or "we found,"' she said.

"What is interesting, she said, is that it recalls a passage in the Gospel of St. Luke, 'We found this man misleading our people,' which was what several Jewish leaders told Pontius Pilate when they asked him to condemn Jesus.

"She said it would not be unusual for something to be written on a burial cloth in order to indicate the identity of the deceased."

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

"The Oregon health plan last year refused to pay for a recognized drug to prolong the life of lung cancer patient Barbara Wagner even after her oncologist prescribed it. Yet the same bureaucrats told Ms. Wagner that the plan would indeed cover doctor-assisted suicide if she chose that option."

Has anyone said that to Ted Kennedy? Yuh think? Who is more likely to have their health care cut off and to be pressured to choose euthanasia? Rich politicians like Ted Kennedy -- or the poor and minorities.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Fred Thompson recently interviewed Betsy McCaughey. It's a real eye-opener. Betsy, a former lieutenant governor of New York, has read the entire bill and cites chapter and verse about this abusive bill that scapegoats the elderly and rations their care. Consider the impact on older Americans of being denied hip and knee replacements and common antibiotics for infection.

Obama-care targets the boomer generation for denial of health care benefits and mandates death counseling. Every five years the elderly will be REQUIRED to attend a session on how to end their lives earlier by refusing food, water, and antibiotics (See pp. 425-430 of the plan). Anyone diagnosed with a serious disease must be counseled AGAIN. Those with incurable diseases like dementia can be denied care altogether. Rationing is inevitable. Medicare will be cut by 584 billion while large numbers are added to the rolls.

Remember after Roe v. Wade when pro-lifers said that murdering children would result in euthanasia of the elderly. Welcome to the brave new future...It's here!

"Wendy Long, of the Judicial Confirmation Network, told LifeNews.com the polling results bear out what her group has said about Sotomayor from the start.

"'President Obama promised he would appoint a Supreme Court justice who would decide the 'hard' cases by relying on personal feelings and politics,' she said. 'He fulfilled that promise by nominating Judge Sotomayor, whose record of speeches, law review articles, and judicial decisions, demonstrate that she and President Obama are on the same page when it comes to judicial activism.'"

Eighteen senators say they will vote against the nominee, more than any voting against a Democratic nomination since 1916.

Keep telling your senators to "Vote No" on judicial activism and preferential treatment. The Supreme Court needs a nominee who rules by law not giving special advantages to minorities and discriminating against white men. The symbol of justice is a blind woman holding balance scales to weigh the merits of the case. Sotomayor's weights are rigged. Call your senators and urge them to oppose this pro-abortion judicial activist.

Barack Obama has apparently never considered the danger of overexposure. Viewers to his televised press conferences have dropped progressively and so has traffic to his website. A perpetual campaigner, Obama seems to think he can generate the enthusiasm of a rock star whenever he opens his mouth. Poll results show his popularity in continuous decline as the American people learn more about the bailouts, the government takeover of health care, and the ham-fisted way this administration operates. The president's flagging popularity is good news for conservatives. The best government is one that doesn't do any more damage. And the Obama/Pelosi team have done enough already!

Let's hope the downward trends continue and opposition to Obama's liberal policies increases. Even the Washington Post ran an article last week comparing the president to Jimmy Carter and his failed one-term administration. Carter was naive in foreign policy and a disaster at home. Remember the lines at the gas pumps, runaway inflation, and high unemployment. Get ready for a repeat with Carter's liberal clone. May history repeat itself also in the length of time Obama stays in office trashing America.

Pray for our country and for an increase in conservatives to defend her -- while there is still something to conserve.

Monday, July 27, 2009

English author George Orwell invented the term "newspeak" in his futuristic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (written in 1949), about a dystopian society controlled by a Leviathan government ruled by "Big Brother." Newspeak was an alternate language that grew smaller every year with simplified vocabulary and grammar, reduced metaphors, synonyms, and antonyms. Word control aided thought control. (Consider the dumbing down of the American education system over the last two generations.)

In Big Brother's world thinking outside the limited language box was thoughtcrime or "crimespeak." In newspeak, words also were used in ways opposite to their meanings. For example, the war department was labeled the department of love. (Remember when Michael Jackson made the word "bad" mean good? That's newspeak.)Verbal engineering was one of Big Brother's control mechanisms as it is in the Obamanation as well as in the world of liberalism in general. (Examples abound. Those who advocate abortion are "pro-choice." Those promoting same-sex perversion are "gay." Dehydrating someone to death is "mercy" and the "right to die," etc.)

Now let's take a look at one of the latest Obama/Pelosi acts of newspeak and Democratic tyranny. The Franking Commission is the organization within Congress that approves the content of Congressional mass mailings. Recently they demanded that Republican members sending out mailings about Obama's health care plan must change the expression "government-run health care" to "public option health care." In a town hall meeting, Representative John Carter (R) from Texas used the sentence, “The House Democrats unveiled a government-run health care plan.” The Franking Commission instructed him that for approval of a mailing he wished to send out, the sentence must be changed to either "the house majority (sic) unveiled a public option health care plan" or "The House majority (sic) unveiled a health care plan...." (Note that he isn't even allowed to identify who the House majority is!)

Carter objected to the word police saying, “Why does the Franking Commission have the right to prevent me from freely speaking what I think my folks back home ought to hear and instead tell me I have to speak what the president said last night? [at his press conference]... I think that is an abridgement of free speech.” Members were also told they could not send out a colorful chart depicting the way Obamacare will operate that looks like a Rube Goldberg contraption.

The Democrats attempt to control members of Congress and frame all the issues by controlling the verbal descriptions is just the beginning. With "hate crimes" legislation looming on the horizon the American people better get ready for the Big Brother "crimespeak" treatment. The Democrats haven't brought out the spiders and rats yet to reeducate citizens' thought patterns like Big Brother did in 1984, but give them time. This administration is young. Maybe that's part B of the plan.

The elderly are a growing population in this country. They need to know what Obamacare has in store for them: rationing, encouraging them to sign up to be starved, dehydrated, and denied antibiotics and other ordinary care. Check out Our Country Deserves Better and help get this great ad on television.

Have you heard of "the Elders?" They are a group of international big names who have been selected for their self-proclaimed "collective wisdom." Among them are former Secretary General of the U.N. Kofi Annon, former president Jimmy Carter, former Irish president Mary Robinson, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and a handful of others. According to their website they were convened in 2007 by Nelson Mandela to "offer their experience and support for peace building and collaborative approaches to addressing major causes of human suffering."

How do they work? "The Elders are committed to listening to the views of all groups and individuals – and especially women and young people....The Elders amplify the voices of those who work hard to be heard, challenge injustice, stimulate dialogue and debate and help others to work for positive change in their societies."

In their website video Kofi Annon says of the elders (including himself), "They do not have careers to build, elections to wins, constituents to please. They can talk to anyone they please and are free to follow any paths they deem right." The elders then, are being promoted as an independent group of wise leaders able to advise the global village to solve the problems of mankind. Religion has little role in this enterprise. In fact, the elders see it as a primary oppressor of women and a source of many of mankind's problems.

This is particularly evident in the discussion of one of the main issues listed on the website, "equality of women and girls." The page addressing the issue specifically targets religion as a source of discrimination. Jimmy Carter, writing in his role as an elder, elaborated on this recently when he quit the Southern Baptist Convention because of their position against ordaining women as deacons and pastors. In a commentary article in The Age, an Australian Newspaper, he made it clear that religions that will not ordain women are antiquated and discriminatory. "The carefully selected verses found in the Holy Scriptures to justify the superiority of men," Carter wrote, "owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths." This was clearly a swipe at all faiths, including the Catholic Church, that do not ordain women. It is the same language adopted by feminist groups advocating women priests.

Carter also used not so coded language to attack the Church for its opposition to abortion. "The belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives." While the Elders' website carries nothing about abortion, the language that fills U.N. documents about women "controlling their bodies" and women's reproductive rights should concern anyone about the ultimate goals of this group, especially since many are well known for their abortion advocacy. Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson, Kofi Annon, Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela all have extreme pro-abortion backgrounds.

In fact, the Elders looks like one more group of elitist ideologues who believe that human effort can bring about Utopia. Their cumulutive record of pro-abortion and pro-population control politics makes it questionable whether they really have the interests of individual people at heart. As Screwtape, C.S. Lewis' senior devil, always advised his nephew Wormwood, keep man's attention on humanity as a whole and he'll overlook the hungry man next door.

Obama ran as a moderate and people believed him. But as the saying goes, "You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

"We the People" appear to be waking up from their pipe dream to cold reality. Welcome back, folks!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Socialists are always good for a laugh! They preach equality and take from the "rich" (anyone who makes over $250,000... or $150,000... or $100,000... or $50,000....) ostensibly to give to the poor, but more often to give to government bureaucrats -- especially themselves.

Now you would expect that the Obamas being so concerned about the average American, as they constantly tell us while they attack greedy white rich folks, would be ever so budget conscious and absolutely committed to economizing for the American people. (Warning: Nobody get mean here and talk about date nights to New York, flying in pizza chefs from St. Louis, taking European vacations with the girls, etc. or steps will be taken.) Unfortunately, their lovely rhetoric doesn't seem to be matched by their actions.

American Thinker has a fascinating piece by Ralph Alter on Michelle Obama's budget which is THREE TIMES higher than Laura Bush's was in 2004. What are the American people getting for their $1,448,500? Lots of secretaries and assistant secretaries and assistants to assistants. But read the article for yourself and laugh (or weep). And the next time you hear the president talk about protecting the little guy, remember just how much he cares about you -- like family -- but not like the first family. More like his half brother George in Kenya who's not worth bothering about.

"God's greatest pleasure is to pardon us. The good Lord is more eager to pardon a repentant sinner than a mother to rescue her child from the fire." -- St. Therese of Lisieux

Underline the word "repentant." Even God can't forgive the soul who rejects his mercy.

Jesus paid for our sins with every drop of His precious blood. Those who preach universal salvation and God as the Sugar Daddy in the sky waiting to welcome us to Candyland paint a false picture of Divine Justice. Jesus is on the cross with arms outstretched to welcome every repentant sinner. He does not rejoice in our destruction. In fact those who are lost must wrench themselves away from His loving embrace.

When was the last time you went to Confession? We are weak and sick from sin. Only by running often to the Divine Physician can we hope to survive in this corrupt age.

Friday, July 24, 2009

President Obama is trying to defuse the controversy he started when he played the race card against a Cambridge police officer, who by all accounts, has an exemplary record. One of the reports below says the president may invite Crowley and Gates to the White House for a beer and to kiss and make up. I'm shaking my head frankly. This administration more and more seems like a carnival sideshow. Very entertaining though if you enjoy farce.

We're about six weeks away from the start of school and now is a perfect time to reflect on whether you want to put your children back into a system where they will be indoctrinated with demonic values. (I was going to write "pagan values" but decided that would insult the many ethical pre-Christians who believed in honesty, integrity, and respect for others. Think of Hippocrates, Socrates, and Aristotle for starters.) Most school systems are neck deep in sex ed that approves of homosexuality, fornication, "outercourse" to prevent pregnancy, and every other sort of depraved activity. Does your local kindergarten send home a "diversity bookbag" with children's books normalizing same sex relationships? Mainstreaming immorality throughout the curriculum makes it almost impossible today to protect your kids from perverted ideas. The indoctrination begins in pre-school touching programs that desensitize your children to sexual terms and often use pictures of adults molesting children to describe "bad touches." Teachers seem oblivious to the fact that such actions are, in themselves, abusive."

A friend of mine described a situation that occurred in her young son's pre-school class. "Tommy" came home and told his mom that "Sally" wanted to marry "Janie" when she grew up. My friend laughed and said, "Girls can't marry girls." Her son responded, "Yes she can. My teacher said girls can marry girls." Think about it. My friend only found out because her son brought up the conversation. But what does this do the formation of a little one's values to hear this from a respected, and perhaps loved, authority figure?

The earlier these these ideas are imposed on your children the more damage they do to their innocence. It consitutes mental and spiritual abuse and interferes with the latency period.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Turns out Sgt. James Crowley, the Cambridge police officer who arrested Harvard Professor Henry Gates, Obama's buddy, is an expert on racial profiling who was hand-picked by former Police Commissioner, Ronny Watson, who is black, to teach police academy students about respecting ethnic minorities. Read the full story here.

A reminder to the White House: "Engage brain before opening mouth." And remember Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does."

When late-term abortionist George Tiller was murdered, the White House acted like someone had murdered Albert Schweitzer. Abortionists are heroes who would never exploit women for the money. They're champions of reproductive freedom and women's rights. Which is why Obama told Planned Parenthood (PP) the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) was his first priority.

But your local family doctor, is he a hero? Not at all. His ethics are in his pocketbook. He's likely to check the insurance company's fee schedule and recommend an unnecessary tonsillectomy because it pays more. In Obama's book there are no unscrupulous pro-aborts. PP, the biggest abortion provider in the country, is a woman's best friend (and Obama's too). The White House hasn't made a peep over evidence that PP aids and abets statutory rape of little girls. But your family doctor? He's a money-grubbing, unethical opportunist.

This is nothing but liberal ideology that spins everything according to the agenda -- and in this case its FOCA by stealth. The health care plan will cause the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade and most of FOCA is hiding in those 1,000 pages. In the Obama ideology abortionists are right up there with Albert Schweitzer. Your family doctor, on the other hand, is a scoundrel with a scalpel.

President Obama played the race card and slandered a courageous police officer yesterday to defend one of his liberal buddies and paint America once again as a racist nation. (Gosh this is getting boring!) Harvard Professor Henry Gates was out of line attacking Officer Crowley for investigating what could have been a break-in of his home. He should have listened and been grateful that his neighbor was watching out for his property and the police were so responsive. Instead, he refused to show his identification and acted like a racist cop-hater which he very well may be judging from the verbal assault on the officers. But he's a FOB (Friend of Barack) and therefore qualifies for special treatment.

Here are some interesting commentaries on the incident:

The President and the professor: "I don't think the President did himself any good last night. He not only failed in his mission to sell ObamaCare, he opened a can of worms by flaunting his willingness to judge without knowing the facts, and condemn a brave police officer. He owes Officer Crowley an apology." Amen!

And from the Fox News report: "Expanding on the implications of the arrest, Obama told reporters Wednesday that this incident shows that there is a long history of racial profiling in the United States." NONSENSE! The police responded to a call. Gates showed the typical action of a man with a chip on his shoulder and verbally assaulted the officers. Assault happens to be a crime in this country. The White House spokesman was right when he said cooler heads should have prevailed, but the one who needed the cooler head was Professor Gates who was yelling and cursing.

My brother is a retired police officer. It's a dangerous job. Most policemen are good family men trying to protect life and property at the risk of their own safety. That's what Officer Crowley was doing. His actions were legitimate and both Professor Gates and President Obama should apologize for smearing his good name. But what is more likely is that this good officer will be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. Pray for him.

President Obama has been in a hurry ever since election day to impose his socialist agenda on the American people. The so-called stimulus bill which was going to stave off unemployment had to be passed yesterday to save us from disaster. Now he claims the stimulus is working and doing exactly what it was planned to do even as it fails. The president certainly follows the old adage that if you repeat a lie long enough people will believe it.

The reality is that the unemployment situation, among other things, is much worse than it would have been without the stimulus and continues to climb. It's personal for me because two of my nieces who have small children have been affected. One's husband was laid off, they had to sell their home, and are moving into her parent's vacation house while he looks for a job. The other was laid off and her income was necessary to maintain their mortgage so they may lose their home too. Meanwhile, the president keeps telling us his plans are working and now he wants to implement a trillion dollar "health" care bill that will mandate killing children, implement rationing for the elderly, outlaw private insurance, increase taxes on small businesses and middle income families, and generally lower the quality of care in this country. Meanwhile he claims just the opposite in his speeches. The devil is in the details of the bill, but who has actually read the 1,000-page tome? Take heart though. Obama promises he'll wait five days after any bill gets to his desk before signing it so the American people can read it. Read it and weep.

This administration is hell bent on expanding the government and doing it quickly before the American people wake up. It's an audacious plan that presumes Obama's personal magnetism and popularity (which is waning) can trump political reality. The question is whether enough freedom-loving Americans have the gumption and the will to challenge him.

It's not the first time conservatives have had to fight massive government takeovers. In 1824 John Randolph of Roanoke stood in the House of Representatives to oppose liberals eager to use public policy to effect quick and massive changes to strengthen federal power. Sound familiar?

Here's what that great conservative politician said:

In all beneficial changes in the natural world...in all those changes, which are the work of an all-wise, all-seeing and superintending providence...you will find imperceptible changes; you cannot see the object move, but take your eyes from it for a while, and like the index of that clock, you can see that it has moved. The old proverb says, God works good, and always by degrees. The devil, on the other hand, is bent on mischief, and always in a hurry. He cannot stay; his object is mischief, which can best be effected suddenly, and he must be gone elsewhere.

Almost every day we see evidence of devilish mischief being foisted on the country by this administration and always in a hyper speed hurry. The president speaks words of transparency while acting like a slippery-fingered card shark with aces up his sleeve. In fact, Congress and the White House these days resemble Las Vegas, all glittering and filled with entertaining shows, but with an underbelly of (political) prostitution and (political) payoffs. And for those playing slots or craps in the casino, it's wise to remember that the odds always favor the (White) house over the customers (taxpayers) who are seen as little more than paying patsies.

It's time to slow down this entire administration and require evaluation of all its actions. Otherwise Americans are likely to find themselves in a very different country, one they may not recognize and may not want to live in. When people voted for "change," most had no idea of the radical plans waiting in the wings from a man who talks like a moderate but acts like a socialist.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

I love this blogger, Political Math. And I'm not the only one. Michael Steele, head of the Republican National Committee, recently invited him to Washington to meet with leaders and illustrate his approach to making the math simple. He has a lot of clever videos on YouTube that bring political economics down to a level a caveman can understand. Check out some of his others here and I've added him to my blog list so you can follow him there as well.

Isn't it interesting that whenever politicians want to raise taxes they shut down essential services. They'll target the police department or fire protection and claim they need higher taxes to fund it. Pork barrell spending rests secure. Planned Parenthood, homosexual programs in the schools -- they tend to be sacred cows that rarely get cut. (Massacusetts is in big financial trouble, but until parents organized a massive protest, they were keeping funding for homosexual indoctrination in the schools intact.) What do the politicians in Virginia shut down? Interstate rest stops. It's the manipulative game of our democratic leadership starting with Governor Tim Kaine.

Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall went out and spoke to folks at the rest stops. Nineteen are slated for closing and it's a terrible idea! I live near Interstate 81 and I'm continuously calling the state police about 18 wheelers parked on the entrance and exit ramps. You'll hear one trucker talk about the lawsuit he experienced from being hit on a ramp. I know of three people who were killed in accidents from trucks illegally parked on ramps. With more rest stops closed more trucks will be on the side of the road. Watch Bob's video and take action. Keep the rest stops open for safety's sake!

They're too busy obsessing over celebrities like Michael Jackson whose life was an ego orgy and a pathetic waste. Michael Jackson gave the country an endless freak show; Brian Bradshaw gave his life. Thank you, Brian! "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

Investor's Business Daily has a great series of articles on Obama's health care fiasco filled with eye-opening facts that may send you into cardiac arrest. (Have your attack quick before rationing kicks in!) I'll post a few quotes to give you a small taste of what's there. Pass the information on to those who have swallowed Obama's rotten fish whole.

"No, we don't....85% of the population, or 258 million people, polls show high satisfaction with the current coverage. Indeed, a 2006 poll by ABC News, the Kaiser Family Foundation and USA Today found 89% of Americans were happy with their own health care.As for the estimated 47 million not covered by health insurance, 20 million can afford to buy it, according to a study by former CBO Director June O'Neill. Most of the other 27 million are single and under 35, with as many as a third illegal aliens. When it's all whittled down, as few as 12 million are unable to buy insurance — less than 4% of a population of 305 million. For this we need to nationalize 17% of our nation's $14 trillion economy and change the current care that 89% like?"

"Three years ago, Massachusetts enacted a law that required every resident to have medical insurance. Commonwealth Care was created to subsidize those who couldn't afford to buy their own. It didn't take long for the program, which never achieved coverage for everyone, to run into trouble.

"Costs soared from $158 million in the first year to $630 million in 2007, then doubled in 2009 to $1.3 billion. Enrollment in the program has also surged. It stands at roughly 181,000, up from 165,000 in the early spring, and is projected to reach 212,000 next year."

"In 2007, a Canadian woman gave birth to extremely rare identical quadruplets — Autumn, Brooke, Calissa and Dahlia Jepps. They were born in the United States to Canadian parents because there was again no space available at any Canadian neonatal care unit....In 2007, there were at least 40 mothers and their babies who were airlifted from British Columbia alone to the U.S. because Canadian hospitals didn't have room. It's worth noting that since 2000, 42 of the world's 52 surviving babies weighing less than 400g (0.9 pounds) were born in the U.S....in Canada roughly 900,000 patients of all ages are waiting for beds, according to the Fraser Institute."

"Read the bill's fine print. Those earning less than $250,000 will be hit with new taxes, too. Those who don't sign up for health care, for instance, will be taxed up to 2.5% of their income. Small businesses that don't have health plans will have to pay up to 8% of their payroll as a 'fee.' These new taxes will have a devastating effect on the economy. According to the National Tax Foundation, the top total tax rate on Americans — that is, state, local and federal taxes — will top 50% in 39 states.

"Will entrepreneurs and small businesses expand and create new jobs if they know more than half what they earn will be taken by government? Not likely.

"Two million jobs have been lost this year. If you think that, and 9.5% unemployment, is bad, wait till health reform passes."

"A pattern is emerging for this new presidency. The more radical and far-reaching the plan, the less time the public gets to debate it. Is this due to ambition or fear of push-back?...Where is Ross Perot when we need him? The eccentric Texan got a few things wrong in his political career, but he got at least one thing right with one of his favorite sayings: Measure twice, cut once. This is wisdom that the Obama administration and the Democratic leadership in Congress seem totally to have forgotten."

Take a look at this great series of articles. When you finish, you'll have the facts at your fingertips to refute the myths and outright lies coming out of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid spin machine.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Good question. I think this audience listening to Congressman Carnahan just came from a tea party. They sure aren't swallowing the swill he's pushing. Really, isn't it high time somebody introduced a bill that requires legislators to participate in the same programs they foist on the taxpayers? No exceptions! If a law is good enough for us, it's good enough for them!

"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [documented] 28 deaths in 2008 associated with Gardasil, the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), up from the 19 deaths in 2007. The total number of Gardasil-related deaths is 47 since the vaccine was approved in 2006. Overall, the FDA documented 6,723 “adverse events” related to Gardasil in 2008, of which 1,061 were considered “serious,” and 142 considered “life threatening.”

Get the facts before you get the drug or give it to your adolescent daughter. This is what they want to make MANDATORY for your children. Government knows best after all!

Governor Tim Kaine tried to force this drug on Virginia families. Democrats talk about choice but mandate evils like abortion, sex ed, homosexual indoctrination, same-sex marriage, etc. Meanwhile they trample the rights of parents to exercise authority over their children's health and welfare and the Constitutional rights of all Americans .

In the next election throw out every liberal incumbent regardless of party affiliation. Vote for politicians who will uphold the Constitution and respect the rights of citizens, especially parental rights.

We need every faithful Catholic college we can get. But there's one relatively new school that seems ever bent on demolishing itself. They've fired Fr. Fessio again because of a private conversation he had with the former head of the board last November. Are they nuts? Or is this just one more example of MCF (Management-by-Control-Freaks)?

Pray for Ave Maria, especially that the administration will imitate the woman for whom the university is named. Maybe they need to "ponder" a little in their hearts as she did before making stupid decisions!

Remember the "soup Nazi" on Seinfeld, the fella in the restaurant who, when he got mad at a customer, would snarl (in bad English), "No soup for you!"

Well, the snarling mantra of the Obama tyrants is, "No choice for you." Abortionists can choose to stab babies in the neck and suck out their brains, homosexuals can choose the sham of same-sex marriage, porn customers can download virtual sex and perversion to their hearts' content, but taxpayers who don't want to cooperate in aborticide and other moral evils get the "NO CHOICE FOR YOU" treatment.

The health care bill FORCES taxpayers to fund abortion and the White House says they won't rule it out. So the pres who says he isn't pro-abortion demonstrates once more that he not only favors the murder of children, he is a pro-abort extremist who will force every taxpayer to bloody his hands. No one may opt out of paying for abortion on demand. Congressman Chris Smith calls the bill "the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade."

Sign up for Thursday's big pro-life webcast with Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, David Bereit of 40 Days for Life, and other pro-life leaders who will expose the dangers of the Obama healthcare juggernaut which threatens not only the unborn but the elderly and every age in between. For more information see the LifeSiteNews article.

Monday, July 20, 2009

The English press is reporting on an article in L'Osservatore Romano praising Oscar Wilde, the flamboyantly homosexual playwright and author who converted to Catholicism on his deathbed. The Telegraph called the move "a surprise act of reconciliation" in which "the Holy See's official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, praised the poet as a 'lucid analyst of the modern world'." The implication is that approving of the playwright's accurate views about the world means the Church approves of his homosexual behavior.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Catholic Church is filled with sinners, hopefully repentant sinners who over and over confess their sins and make a firm purpose of amendment and, in the process, move away from sin and closer to God. Oscar Wilde is an example of the 11th hour penitent; he became a Catholic two days before he died in 1900.

I think Wilde was an honest sinner who recognized his own weakness. Like St. Augustine who prayed, "Give me chastity, but not yet," he clung to his ambition and his lust. He once said, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" and his life clearly illustrated that. His novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, depicted the destructive nature of sin (the "gutter" so to speak), and, according to Wilde, its characters represented himself. He obviously knew firsthand the ugliness of sin even when it hides behind a beautiful facade.

Last year I wrote about Oscar Wilde in the Les Femmes newsletter in an article about good books. Here's what I said then:

Another “Catholic” writer is Oscar Wilde who converted on his deathbed. He once quipped that Catholicism was the only religion worth dying in and he managed to do it.

His life illustrates the parable of the vineyard with Wilde squeaking in at the eleventh hour. Despite his sinful life (he served two years at hard labor for sodomy) he had a Catholic mind. You don’t see it much in his farcical plays, but it’s obvious in his one novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, whose characters, Wilde said, reflected himself. It gets to the heart of what sin does to the soul even if the body retains its beauty. His children’s stories, The Selfish Giant and The Happy Prince among others, are charming tales of love, sacrifice, and conversion. Wilde’s jail time was probably a blessing. He read Augustine, Dante, and Newman which, perhaps, germinated as the seed of his later conversion. Interestingly, many of his other sinful associates converted to the Catholic faith as well. Wilde’s life illustrates the capacity of grace to overcome sin. A fascinating essay, The Long Conversion of Oscar Wilde, is definitely worth reading.

The secular press has a hard time understanding how the Catholic Church can see the bad and good in a person at the same time. But the fact is that we are all like that, trapped in the human condition by original sin, constantly called to conversion, constantly striving for a return to original integrity. That explains why Catholics like C.K. Chesterton could remain friends with people like the notorious secularist George Bernard Shaw. Mature Catholics know that we are all in need of conversion and who needs conversion the most, saints or sinners? If we refuse to witness to and befriend those most in need, our charity is cold indeed. How we do that in prudence is the subject of another day.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Get your bellylaugh of the day from this article about the female penguin who broke up the "gay pair" at the San Francisco Zoo. Turns out the scientists' were engaging in a farce, which is always the case when the agenda trumps the facts! On the other hand, maybe Linda, the lady penguin, converted Harry to Christianity causing him to reject his former homosexual lover, Pepper. As for male penguins hatching the eggs, that's what they do, nothing unusual there. Haven't you seen March of the Penguins?

While the penguin item was funny, I can't laugh about the mandatory homosexual indoctrination of little children in Alameda schools. (Can't let those pesky parents put the lid on homosexual recruitment of their children from the cradle.) A lot of this is going on behind parents' backs with homosexuality introduced into the curriculum with no notice to parents. (Well, darn, those homophobic hate mongers might object to teaching children the ins and outs of sodomy and anal sex.)

Homosexuality is an identity disorder. There is no such thing as a homosexual personality. Scratch the surface of a homosexual's story and you will frequently find a seduction/molestation/rape that led to the "discovery" that, "Hey, I'm gay!" - like Chastity Bono. Pray for those trapped in the homosexual lifestyle. For many, same-sex attraction is an agonizing trial. But you don't hear about them because they aren't out and about in leather thongs promoting perversion.

A Utah court has upheld the right of a mother who left her lesbian partner because of the detrimental impact on her two-year old son. Her former partner sued for parental rights even though she has no biological connection to the boy. The child's mom converted to Christianity and has since married. Praise God and pray that the lesbian partner hears the good news and converts from her immoral lifestyle as well. God can free anyone from the chains of sin whether it's: sexual addiction, drug addiction, pornography, alcoholism, etc. No sin is too big for God if someone truly repents and wants to be freed. That doesn't mean it's easy or that a person won't fall, but Jesus taught us the answer to that: get up, pick up your cross, and follow in His footsteps.

Friday, July 17, 2009

The Democratic socialists are working fast and furiously to make sure their agenda is imposed on the American people before we can blink and say, "Wait a minute!" The latest Obamanation is the health care bill -- a thousand pages that no one has read and studied that absolutely must be signed immediately before it's too late.

And what's in the bill? Who knows? Have any of our representatives read it? Darn few, if any. But that won't stop these totalitarians from voting to impose it on us. (There are no doubt exceptions for them; there always are.)

But a "bombshell" is being reported that hopefully will sink the bill. On page 16, it carries a clear statement that private insurance will become illegal. This is what Hillarycare wanted to implement and the American people rejected it resoundingly during the Clinton years. Can Obama push it through? He seems pretty successful at promoting his socialist agenda so far.

Investors Business Daily ran an editorial July 15th describing the "uh oh moment" in the bill.

Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal. When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.

It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

From the beginning, opponents of the public option plan have warned that if the government gets into the business of offering subsidized health insurance coverage, the private insurance market will wither. Drawn by a public option that will be 30% to 40% cheaper than their current premiums because taxpayers will be funding it, employers will gladly scrap their private plans and go with Washington's coverage....

What wasn't known until now is that the bill itself will kill the market for private individual coverage by not letting any new policies be written after the public option becomes law.

Whatever happened to "choice?" And what other choices will be denied? Once the government is running things, will consumers be allowed to choose their own doctors, hospitals, treatment options, etc.? If we can't choose our own health plans, why would we expect other "choices" to be allowed. After all, the bureaucrats will be working hard to control costs. We've already heard the rhetoric about cost/benefit analysis and health care rationing for the elderly. Under Obama we are seeing an unprecendented assault against freedom and individual liberties on all fronts, but destruction of the best health care system in the world should terrify Americans. Is this the "change" the electorate wanted when they engaged in a lovefest with this political gigolo?

The hardball tactics instituted by the White House caused Republican Senator Judd Gregg (NH) to accuse White House operatives of practicing “the Chicago approach to governing.” He went on to say, “You’re talking about running over the minority, putting them in cement, and throwing them in the Chicago River.” Obama wants a vote on the health care bill before Congress recesses in August and the velvet gloves have been replaced with the brass knuckles. Why the hurry? Simple -- When you're trying to pass off a rotten piece of meat as a gourmet steak, the quicker you get the consumer to gulp it down, the less likely he is to notice it stinks and will make him sick!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I just tried to call my two senators about the so-called "hate crimes" bill. The switchboard was overloaded so I emailed instead. But I'll keep trying the phones. Americans need to make it impossible for their offices to do any business. Some pundits are saying calls urging passage are outnumbering the nays. If you haven't contacted your senators google their names and you should get their websites with contact information. For lots of articles on this check out LifeSiteNews.

Note the accompanying list of articles at the bottom especially the one that says the Federal Civil Rights Commission warns that the bill endangers civil liberties. Do you think the liberals care? Let's face it -- this administration and the liberal Congress are perfectly willing to suppress the liberties of ordinary Americans if it means they can keep buckets of money pouring into their campaign coffers from "gays," the Hollywood elite, the population controllers, abortionists, etc.

Portraying the "hate crimes" bill as defending gays against discrimination is a lie. Leftists lynch the truth using any crime that involves a gay to claim a hate motivation. But when a gay murders a Christian, like Mary Stachowicz, the media ignores it and gay activists say "she deserved it." THIS IS NOT A CIVIL RIGHTS BILL. IT IS A SPECIAL RIGHTS BILL. It will deny free speech to Christians and others who object to homosexual immorality. "Gays" already are treated with special protection. When they engage in public nudity and mutual masturbation during "pride" events, police look the other way. This bill will increase hatred all right, hatred against Christians like Mary Stachowicz who cared enough to speak the truth in love. She was murdered for it. The video below has some offensive footage from "gay pride" events. It is definitely not for children, but it is information to wake up adults who think that gays' perverted relationships are equivalent to traditional marriage. They are not!

Talk Show Hosts May Be Accomplices Under Hate Bill "This bill imposes much stronger federal enforcement, which is a clear violation of the Tenth Amendment. It grants greater power to federal prosecutors to prosecute hate crime laws by prosecuting those who have been found innocent by local or state courts. The current bill will extend special privileges to gays and transgender individuals that are currently only granted to ethnic and religious minorities. The most dangerous part of the Bill which is a direct assault against the First Amendment is that it allows for the prosecution as accomplices in a hate crime for talk show pundits that the person who commits the alleged crime claims to influence their actions."

Call your Senators today at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to vote NO on the Sen. Leahy's amendment adding S. 909 to the Department of Defense authorization bill.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

If you read a history of the founding fathers, you find that most suffered for their ideals. Many ended up destitute and had to start over after the Revolutionary War. Their homes were burned, their belongings confiscated, nine even lost their lives. After his presidency, Thomas Jefferson was deeply in debt. In those days "public service" truly was service. Today, most of those who "serve" in public office leave office rich as Croesus and end up in lucrative jobs using their "connections" to further enrich themselves. To put it bluntly, many politicians prostitute themselves both in and out of office. Integrity and politics are too often strangers.

So is it any wonder to find politicians using sneaky stealth tactics to impose their extremist agendas on the American people? The Democrats are adept at disguising their actions and adding controversial issues to unrelated legislation as amendments, often to appropriation bills that legislators want to pass. Both sides do it, but the Dems have turned it into an art, like those three dimensional stereogram pictures hiding within another picture.

One stealth issue coming up this week is the work of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont). He plans to add the "Hate Crimes" bill (S. 909: The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act described by opponents as the Pedophile Protection Act) as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization Bill. The Amendment is not really about protecting people from crime (hate or otherwise) - laws already exist for that. This is all about giving special rights to homosexuals, lesbians, bi-sexuals and transgendered folks. (Did I miss anybody?) So if your granny gets mugged on the street it's not a hate crime, but if Joe Blow is dressed in an evening gown and stiletto heels and gets mugged he gets special treatment as the victim of a "hate crime."

But it's about more than that. Hate crimes are designed to stifle criticism of the immoral gay lifestyle. In Canada where hate crime legislation has been on the books for some time, church ministers have been prosecuted for quoting Bible passages condemning sodomy. Magazine and newspaper editors are fined for allowing ads critical of homosexual behavior. Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary and Basilian priest, Fr. Alphonse de Valk, were both brought before the Human Rights Commission for defending Church teaching on traditional marriage against the same-sex marriage onslaught. In another Canadian case, Bill Whatcott, was banned for life by a Saskatchewan court from ever publicly criticizing homosexuality. This is the ultimate goal of hate crime legislation - to muzzle free speech against homosexual immorality. Those who engage in sodomy and anal sex are above criticism in the world of "hate crimes."

If Christians don't fight this amendment, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves when we are targeted with the same persecution as our northern neighbors. And, in fact, the persecution has already begun. In 2008 a New Mexico Christian photographer, Elaine Huguenin who refused to photograph the "commitment ceremony" of two lesbians, was prosecuted by the New Mexico Human Rights Division. They said her action defied state antidiscrimination laws for sexual orientation discrimination. She is being defended by the Alliance Defense Fund whose spokesman says they will take the case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. Somehow, with confirmation hearings going on that will probably seat activist judge Sonia Sotomayor on the high court, I'm not particularly comforted by that thought. Once the court is packed with judicial activists committed to furthering the liberal agenda, there will be little hope for constitutional rights. When free speech is murdered who will resurrect it?

Christians must continue to put on the armor of God and fight. Call your Senators today at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to vote NO on the Sen. Leahy's amendment adding S. 909 to the Department of Defense authorization bill. Don't let Senator Slick and his buddies con us out of our right to free speech. We pay their salaries after all!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who wrote the article repudiating the actions of the his brother bishop in Brazil, Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho, with regard to the nine-year-old child whose twins were aborted has essentially been repudiated by the Vatican. Of course they never actually repudiate members of the hierarchy, but a clarification from the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith carried by L'Osservatore Romano essentially overturns the opinions stated by Archbishop Fisichella. It couldn't happen too soon for concerned Catholics! Let's hope the Archbishop exerts better control over his pen and his mouth in the future. Pray that all our shepherds will be vigilant in defending Catholic truth, especially the life issues.

Chiesa News has an interview with Fr. Thomas Berg, a former member of the Legionaries of Christ. The Vatican investigation of the order begins this week and Fr. Berg, who is now incardinated in the Archdiocese of New York, addresses some of the problems in the Legion. He gave an extensive commentary on the Legion's practice of "unquestioning submission" to superiors:

At the core of serious problems in the internal culture of the congregation is a mistaken understanding and living of the theological principle - in itself valid - that God's will is made manifest to the religious through his superior. The Legionary seminarian is erroneously led to foster a hyper-focusing on internal "dependence" on the superior for virtually every one of his intentional acts (either explicitly or in virtue of some norm or permission received, or presumed or habitual permissions). This is not in harmony with the tradition of religious life in the Church, nor is it theologically or psychologically sound. It entails rather an unhealthy suppression of personal freedom (which is a far cry from the reasoned, discerned and freely exercised oblation of mind and will that the Holy Spirit genuinely inspires in the institution of religious obedience) and occasions unholy and unhealthy restrictions on personal conscience.

Furthermore, Legionary norms regarding "reporting to," "informing," "communication with," and "dependence on" superiors constitute a system of control and conformity which now must be considered highly suspect given what we know about Fr. Maciel. They furthermore engender a simplistic, and humanly and theologically impoverished notion of God's will (its discernment and manifestation) that breeds personal immaturity.

More seriously, the lived manner in which Legionaries practice obedience is laced with the kind of unquestioning submission which allowed the cult of personality to emerge around the figure of Maciel in the first place and covered for his misdeeds. Legionary seminarians are essentially trained to suspend reason in their obedience and to seek a total internal conformity with all the norms, and to withstand any internal impulse to examine or critique the norms or the indications of superiors.

Granted, the primary motivation behind such living of obedience is the ideal of total "immolation" of oneself for the love of Christ as embodied in the relentless living of all norms and indications of the superiors. This "immolation" of intellect and will is at the heart of the "holocaust" that the Legionary is invited to live for love of Christ and the Church. While the motivation is valid, and generations of Legionaries have pursued this in good faith, in the long run it not only proves profoundly problematic, but also explains the negative personality change which many, if not most, Legionaries undergo over time: the shallowness of their emotional expression, the lack of empathy and inability to relate normally to others in so many contexts, the general sense of their being "out of touch," etc. Only exceptionally do Legionary priests move beyond this, but only thanks to the multiple talents and human gifts they brought with them to the Legion.

It is more important than ever for Catholics to understand what constitutes legitimate authority and obedience to God's will. Those exercising authority may never infringe on the legitimate exercise of free will by those under them. Pray for the discernment of the Legionaries and their openness to God's will.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

A Commentary on Chapter 1 of Caritas in Veritate: The Truth Doesn't Change

Back in the 70s (before the term "rescue" was in common use) a group of pro-life activists, including myself, conducted regular sit-ins at an abortion mill euphemistically called The Northern Virginia Women's Medical Center. The Center didn't do any medicine; their primary business was killing children. The administrator of the facility was a young woman named Sharon. She and I conversed many times: during sit-ins, at recess in court - we even debated on a local radio station. I tried to witness in Christian charity and challenged Sharon to put her nursing skills to real use instead of killing children. She never stopped in the time I knew her, although one of her nurses, Pam, burned out and left.

Once when our group had again successfully entered the mill to block the killing even though the doors were locked (a nurse opened the door as we walked down the corridor), Sharon said to me in frustration, "You sound like a broken record; you always say the same thing." I replied, "Sharon, the truth doesn't change."

I thought of that as I continued reading Caritas in Veritate this week. The Church doesn't change. Even in the face of new technology and societal development, the principles that guide our actions always remain the same. Pope Benedict makes that clear by his heavy dependence on Pope Paul VI's encyclical Populorum Progressio published more than 40 years ago and reference to the apostles and to the ancient fathers and doctors of the Church. Standing with one foot firmly planted in the traditions of the past and the other in the present facing new challenges, the Church remains solidly grounded in ancient, unchanging truths.

The first is that the whole Church, in all her being and acting -- when she proclaims, when she celebrates, when she performs works of charity -- is engaged in promoting integral human development....The second truth is that authentic human development concerns the whole of the person in every single dimension.

So human development is oriented toward the individual who is seen as an integrated whole: body, intellect, and will. Pope Benedict speaks the same message shared by the great reformers of every age, "the Christian ideal of a single family of peoples in solidarity and fraternity." Consider the Apostles going to the ends of the earth carrying the message of evangelization and baptizing people one by one. The central force serving this true human development, the very heart of social teaching, is "Christian charity" at the service of life.

Life ethics, Pope Benedict makes crystal clear, are at the very heart of social ethics. There can be no true "dignity of the person, justice and peace" where "human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized." Human progress is essentially a vocation "that derives from a transcendent call." It "presupposes the responsible freedom of the individual" and recognizes that each individual is the "principal agent of his own success or failure." The Gospel, Pope Paul says and Pope Benedict reaffirms "is fundamental for development" and it must, to be true, "involve the whole man and every man."

The world often denies the necessity of the Church, faith, and God to bring about human progress. Instead worldly institutions (government, schools, charitable foundations, think tanks, etc.) are seen as the agents of change for the betterment of society. But the pope makes it clear that:

institutions by themselves are not enough, because integral human development is primarily a vocation, and therefore it involves a free assumption of responsibility in solidarity on the part of everyone. Moreover...it needs God: without him, development is either denied, or entrusted exclusively to man, who falls into the trap of thinking he can bring about his own salvation, and ends up promoting a dehumanized form of development.

Think of the paganized public school system attempting to solve the problem of teenage pregnancy by teaching children to fornicate without consequence (an impossibility) and you'll understand what the pope means by "a dehumanized form of development."

Pope Benedict stresses that the Church's social doctrine throughout the ages forms "a single teaching, consistent and at the same time ever new" that shares "the coherence of the overall doctrinal corpus....The church's social doctrine illuminates with an unchanging light the new problems that are constantly emerging." From the Apostles to the Fathers of the Church to "the great Christian doctors" Church teaching still speaks to us today. The great moral principles of the past never grow old, they simply find new applications.

From the very beginning of his encyclical, Pope Benedict makes it clear that respect for life and the dignity of the human person, man's own freedom and responsibility and call to vocation, lie at the center of any discussion of social progress and social justice. It is not a message the media welcomes or is likely to promote. So read the document, not the media spin on its contents.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

The latest issue of Christifidelis, from the St. Joseph Foundation, is out and it's a corker! The lead article by Philip Gray, J.C.L. is a great discussion on what obedience is and when a person is required to obey a lawful authority. Obedience is a subset of the cardinal virtue of justice which requires us to give to God and neighbor what is due to them. We owe absolute obedience to God, so all other laws are subservient to and subject to God's laws. When there's a conflict between God's law and a lower law, guess what we have to do? "We must obey the higher [law] lest we sin."

There are limits on human authority. "Directives that violate divine law must be ignored, and in many circumstances we have an obligation to resist them actively." Gray gives China's forced abortion laws as an example.

We must obey legitimate authority. However, if those in authority act outside the boundaries of their authority, they need not be obeyed. For example, parents have authority over their children, but don't have the right to demand that an adult child follow a particular vocation. So when St. Clare fled from home to become a nun she did not act in disobedience.

My own mom left Cleveland against her mother's will (but with her father's support) to fly to California and marry my dad before he was deployed to Pearl Harbor in 1940. Even if her father had joined in opposing the marriage, she would not have been disobedient to ignore their wishes because parents have no authority to choose the marriage partners of their children. (I guess that means I can't arrange any marriages for my grandchildren. Darn!)

Gray points out that "to develop the virtue of obedience, we must develop an adequate knowledge of divine laws and those human laws that regulate our lives. We have to know the limits of authority. If we do not know the limits of authority, we can be easily manipulated or used by lawful authority." In other words, just because someone has authority over me doesn't mean I'm obliged to follow every directive. He cannot demand unlawful obedience. Those who "when faced with a direction...neither seek to know options and consequences nor deliberate their choices" show an attitude that "is not true obedience nor is it virtuous." In other words, blind obedience is the cop-out of a lazy individual who doesn't want to take the trouble to study and understand the nature of obedience, its requirements and its limits.

Gray goes on to say that "we have an obligation to know the divine laws and what our obligations to God are. Only with knowledge of divine laws and the legitimate boundaries of lawful authority can we obey." The person who claims authority must also be able to prove it because "we are not bound to obey someone who cannot provide proof of his authority and who does not stay within the bounds of his power."

Gray uses the example of options for Communion as an example of the abuse of legitimate authority, perhaps because it's been so common over the years. In the Latin rite, the communicant has the option of kneeling or standing for Communion and the priest may not infringe on that right. "If a priest demands that a kneeling communicant stand, the communicant does not have to obey....If the communicant follows the priest's demand, this is not obedience. Obedience takes place only when we give authority its rightful due. In this case, the priest went beyond his lawful authority and the communicant allowed him that privilege....If the communicant did not follow the directive, he would not be acting in disobedience...because the priest does not have the authority to demand the standing posture during the reception of Holy Communion. The priest would be acting outside his legitimate bounds, and the communicant would have no obligation to 'obey.'" The same type of abuse of authority comes into play when a priest or religious education teacher instructs communicants they must receive in the hand and may not receive on the tongue. I know of a parish in Maryland where this was routinely demanded by the pastor for First Communicants. This is a serious violation of his authority as well as a violation of Canon Law.

More and more today it's essential for Catholics to understand the nature of obedience and legitimate authority and to know their rights. Last May when Notre Dame police ordered pro-lifers off what is an open campus, similar to a small town, simply because they were carrying signs showing aborted children or pushing baby strollers with dolls covered in stage blood, were they disobedient for refusing to comply? I don't think so. Under the first amendment of our Constitution people cannot be discriminated against due to the content of their speech. Since Notre Dame allowed others to carry pro-Obama and pro-Fr. Jenkins signs on campus they could not legitimately discriminate against others just because they found the content of their signs objectionable. It will be interesting to see what happens in court as the cases are heard, but I do not think those who refused to comply with the order to leave campus were "disobedient" according to Gray's article. Sidewalk counselors, videographers attending gay pride parades, protesters, etc. are all subject to abuse by over-vigorous authorities violating their boundaries.

I'll close with one personal example. About ten years ago I set up a pro-life table at my polling place. I was the proper distance from the entrance so I wasn't violating any election rules. However, someone complained about the graphic pictures and the fetal models and an election official came out, ordered me to put everything away, and called the police. The responding officer told me if I didn't remove the "offensive" materials, I'd be arrested. I complied, but went home and called the American Center for Law and Justice who telephoned the polling place. The election officer backed down (actually apologized) and I put my materials out again. Had I refused to comply I would not have been disobedient. Rather I would have been challenging the boundaries of their authority which they clearly abused. More and more today, Catholics in the public square need to know and understand God's law, the nature of obedience and legitimate authority, and the limits and boundaries of that authority. Only then can they make intelligent choices and act in ways that are truly just and prudent and will help us, as Gray says, "freely choose to exercise the virtue of obedience and gain merit directed to our salvation."

Fulton Sheen once said that those who have problems with faith almost always have a problem with the Eucharist. The center of our Catholic faith is Jesus Christ really present in the tabernacles of the world under the appearances of bread and wine. Jesus walked the earth (past tense), but He continues to live among us on the earth (present tense) through His divine presence. That belief is the fundamental reality of our faith

But God never asks for blind or mindless faith. When He walked with the apostles He gave testimony to Himself through His miracles. And throughout the centuries He has continued to do that even down to the present day.

So if you have doubts about the faith, study the Eucharistic miracles. If you have trouble believing that Christ is really present in the host, study the Eucharistic miracles. Look into the eyes of Christ and hear him say, as He did to Thomas, "Do not persist in your unbelief, but believe." What other response can one have to Jesus, but "My Lord and my God!"

Friday, July 10, 2009

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) makes me laugh, in a head-shaking way. They also turn my thoughts to satire. One problem though: when an organization is that ridiculous, they are beyond satire. Their reality is sillier than anything one could make up.

PETA claims "compassion even for the smallest and least of animals." In fact, they went ballistic when President Obama killed a pesky fly on his jacket. (Hey, Mr. President, we agree on something. Flies are dirty and I don't want them around; I'll happily loan you my flyswatter.) And yet, PETA has no sympathy for unborn babies. (Perhaps if they thought of them as puppies or kittens...) Not only does PETA have no position on abortion, but they dare to call pro-lifers hypocritical, but not just hypocritical. It is "loathsome" and "grotesquely hypocritical" that we don't oppose abuses in the chicken industry.

Actually, PETA just uses these things as a way to promote the vegetarian lifestyle. I doubt if there is a method of slaughtering animals, no matter how humane, that would garner their approval. How dare any of us eat an animal, experiment on one, or wear products made from one. The fact that many cures have arisen from animal experiments and studies is just too darn bad. Die, people, and stop cluttering up the planet.

The most grotesque form of child-killing doesn't deserve even a peep of protest from PETA. It's that fried egg in the egg mcmuffin that raises their ire along with the "hypocrisy" of those carniverous pro-lifers who won't go vegetarian. PETA, of course, is not guilty of any hypocrisy. Their compassion just doesn't extend to the animal species, homo sapiens.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

There's a great post on Sarah Palin at Political Brambles. Take a look at Ray's comments and also his assessment of Ann Coulter's view of the Palin decision to step down from the governor's office. It makes a lot of sense if one is thinking about others instead of oneself. Sarah Palin apparently scares the pants off the left or they wouldn't spend so much ink on her. Read what David Kahane says about Palin at National Review online. As one blogger put it: this is David Kahane channeling a democratic operative. It shows up the democrats for what they are -- a bunch of thugs. But we've known that for a long time. Remember when Ted Kennedy and his mob turned Robert Bork's name into a verb during his nomination hearings to the Supreme Court? One of the most competent jurists in the country was denied a seat because he was a constitutionalist and they hated him for it. The left launched a fear-mongering nuclear attack on his character and whipped their supporters into a frenzy.

Remember the similar attempt to conduct a "high tech lynching" to deny Clarence Thomas a seat on the court? Anita Hill made accusations that were unprovable and conflicted with her actions, for example following Thomas when he left the Department of Education to go to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Hill became the darling of the left for her slander.

The thuggery goes on (think ACORN). Sarah Palin is just its latest victim. But a lady who can dress a moose is up to facing a bunch of thugs in pin-striped suits.

Unfortunately for the thugs, many in the country are starting to wake up and they're armed with righteous anger and common sense. The 2,000 tea parties on July 4th sent a shot across the bow and Obama's dropping popularity illustrates that the sleeping giant is starting to stir. In many cities, thousands turned out to protest. And a national tea party is scheduled for September 11-14 in Washington, D.C. Get your teacups ready!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

You can download Pope Benedict's new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate on the papal website. I plan to read most of it tonight at my weekly hour of Eucharistic adoration. I'm sure studying it in the Real Presence of Our Eucharistic Lord can't help but increase my understanding.

I've only read the introduction, but I'm excited at what Pope Benedict is articulating. Charity and truth, he says, are so intimately connected they cannot be separated. When charity is divided from truth it "degenerates into sentimentality." The relativism that results is a "fatal risk" threatening love that distorts it to the degree "it comes to mean the opposite."

We can certainly see this in the abortion debate where those promoting "choice" deny the biological truth of life's beginning. Their "charity" toward women is cold indeed, based on lies and distortions. And so the reality becomes "the opposite," not love but hatred for the unborn child in the womb who, even when fully developed and easily recognizable as a member of the human family, is treated as so much trash. The end result for the woman is hatred and rejection of both her unborn baby and her very self. Her fertility and her natural gift of nurturing become a curse rather than a blessing. Self-hatred is the result. That explains a lot, for example radical feminism's strident anger, its connections to lesbianism, and its sublimation and hatred for all things feminine.

But back to the pope's introduction - in the social sphere, the pope says, truth is essential not only to establishing a just society but a charitable one. "Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is 'mine' to the other; but it never lacks justice, which prompts us to give the other what is 'his', what is due to him by reason of his being or his acting. I cannot 'give' what is mine to the other, without first giving him what pertains to him in justice....justice is inseparable from charity, and intrinsic to it."

Thus, charity begins with justice, but never ends there. In the broader context it desires "the common good" which "is a great challenge for the Church in a world that is becoming progressively and pervasively globalized." The pope makes it clear that the Church does not interfere "in the politics of States." But instead she has a "mission of truth to accomplish, in every time and circumstance" which is at the "service of truth." Charity, truth, and justice -- a subject worth a lifetime of reflection.

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